Top Five Religions
Hinduism
Judaism
Buddhism
Christianity
Islam
Religion
a relatively new term
Many languages don't even have a comparable word for it.
Europeans originally used the term to refer to Christianity and the Christian Church - other religions were either ignored or denounced.
Type of Definitions
Functional
Substantive
Normative
Descriptive
Essential
Functional Definitions
Relating to how something works or operates.
Substantive definitions
Identifying a distinguishing essence or core idea.
Normative Definition
Establishing or deriving from a standard or norm.
Descriptive Definition
Serving or seeking to describe.
Essential Defeinition
Identifying the absolutely necessary or extremely important.
Two primary ways to study religion
Theology & Religious Studies
Theology
The systematic, faith-based study of religious beliefs & practices. Typically studying own faith. Faith-based study.
Religious Studies
Solely pursuit of knowledge rather than an act of faith.
Includes studies of all religions, not only one's own.
Attempts to take an objective &unbiased approach to beliefs & practices, avoiding imposing own beliefs & biases.
Interdsiplines involved with religion include
Philosophy
History
Sociology
Anthropology
Psychology
Theology
The Arts
Linguistics
Archeology
Subdisiplinary Of Religion
Women & Religion
Science & Religion
Religion & Violence
Comparative Religion
History of Religion
Tribal/Indigenous Religion
Goddess Religion
Why study religion?
Provides training in cross-cultural understanding & critical thinking
The Sacred
The sacred is something outside of the limitations of the ordinary experiences of humans.
Sacred forms
Sacred Objects
Sacred People
Sacred Space
Sacred Places
Sacred Objects
Religious Sculptures
Statues, Painting, Music
Food
Rocks, Plants, Animals
Earth, Moon & Sun
Sacred People
Can be considered sacred due to association with ritual actions & sacred objects, ex. Priest in role w of Eucharist
Sacred Space
Often, a site set apart from worship - may have a dress code and rules of conduct. Ex. Pilgrimage sites
Types of Sacred Time
Linear
&
Cyclical
Linear Time
Common in Monotheistic religions. ex. Christianity, Judaism & Islam
Has a specific beginning, middle, and end.
Linear time is thus the field in which God acts
Monotheistic
relating to or characterized by the belief that there is only one God
Cyclical Time
stands in contrast to linear time & focuses on repetition
"natural time" examples, seasons, phases of moon, movement of stars
Karma
Universal Law of Cause & Effect
Nirvana
aka Moksha
Liberation from the cycle of rebirth.
Myths
Used to manifest the past in the present, breaking down time barriers.
The main factor in distinguishing linear from cyclical time
The way time interacts with the sacred.
Linear mode
time is the vehicle of the sacred
Cyclical Mode
Time is the medium of the sacred.
a vehicle
An agent of transmission, or a thing u=that allows something else to be achieved, expressed, or passed along, meaning the sacred is expressed and ultimately achieved due to time.
a medium
a means of effecting or conveying something
Medium is static, while a vehicle is dynamic; a medium envelops something while a vehicle drives something forward. THUS, as a medium, is sacred, while as a vehicle, time moves the sacred along.
Characteristic of Religion
It encompasses a system of ethics & morals
Involves sacred text &
made up a community of adherents
All religions work with the following 3 concepts.
Myth
Symbol
&
Ritual
A Myth
story that is untrue. Myths are popularly understood as belonging only to ancient and "primitive" religions that have been discredited in one way or another. The ancient Greeks had myths; indigenous religions have myths; modern religions do not. This is a common line of thinking on the topic of myths.
The Abrahamic creation story
Adam and Eve is a Jewish, Christian, and Islamic myth that explains how the natural world, including animals and humans, came to be. It also explains why humans die, why they must work so hard to survive, and why women experience pain during childbirth.
Symbols
are concrete, ordinary ways to represent and help people understand much more complex ideas. Symbols are an essential component of contact with the sacred because they help people make sense of it.
Ritual
Symbolic action more complex & nuanced meaning in religious studies
Ritual & Ceremony
Can be complex or simple
Involve participation from individuals to whole communities.
specific location, or not.
Ritual primary functions
1. to create sacred space
2. to allow individuals & communities and engaging in myth.
3. to give order to time
Myth is the source of rituals.
Rituals are actions within time & space that give power to myths.
2 common types of rituals
Sacrifices & Rites of Passages
Sacrifices
in contemporary times -often takes form of a gift or a promise -example- giving up meat for lent
in the distant past - a means of feeding the spirits (of the dead)
Rite of Passage
assist an individual in moving from ones life role to the next
Not always of the religious sector-
Primary goal of religious studies
What constitutes religion
Secondary goal of religion
Learning how religion came to be
Where did religion come from? sociological perspective
Consider the social dimension of religion & propose that religion developed to give meaning to social institutions & encourage solidarity among those in a community.
Where did religion come from?
Psychologist perspective
A psychologist might explain religion as a response to the fears and needs of individuals and groups.
Where did religion come from?
Religious perspective
religion was revealed to them at some point in development by a god or another spiritual force
Where did religion come from?
Non-believers perspective.
developed by the powerful & elite as a means of suppressing the lower classes
theories regarding the origin of religion
1. Animistic
2. Magic Theory
3. Nature Worship
4. Original Monotheism
5. Religion as a Projection of Human Needs
The Animistic Theory
The theory is that religion originated as a belief in spirits that could interact with living humans.
Polytheistic
belief in or worship of more than on god.
Magic
Refers to using set words, actions, or both to bend the powers of the world to one's will.
James Frazer
The 19th-century scholar claimed the origin of religion was magic theory, that centers on the concept of sympathetic magic
Sympathetic Magic
Describes the belief that imitation or analogy can influence the world and bring about the real thing.
Magic and religion are interrelated
magic emphasizes forcing things to happen, while religion generally focuses on asking that things happen. (according to Frazer)
Frazer suggested that societies developed in three phases in relation to the spiritual world:
1. Humans tried to use magic to control nature.
2. When humans realized that this didn't work, they turned to religion to try to implore nature to cooperate with them.
3. Realizing that supplication doesn't work either, humans will turn to science to explain nature and to figure out how to bring it under control.
Like animism, magic theory suggests that the ultimate phase of human development is
Scientific or rational thought.
Nature Worship
nature worship leads to the deification of natural forces, resulting in the idea that a wide array of gods and demigods are controlling natural phenomena
Original Monotheism
religion was originally monotheistic in nature, but developed into polytheism because of difficulties involved in worshipping only one God. Eventually, more advanced religions such as Judaism and Christianity recovered true monotheistic beliefs, according to Schmidt.
3 Monotheism Fundamentals
1. This god was considered to be omniscient, beneficent, and eternal, and was either the creator of the world or the parent of lesser, more commonly worshipped deities.
2. The high god created the world and passed on law and morality to humans, and then for various reasons, withdrew from the world created and now has little contact with it.
Though the high god had little to do with the world over time, the mythologies say that eventually this god will return and judge the world on the basis of its morality.
Religion as a Projection of Human Needs
As victims of natural and human forces, people saw themselves as helpless and dependent, so they projected an idealized image of power to help them. Thus, Feuerbach said God didn't create humankind; humankind created God.
Marx twofold need for religion
the elite classes needed religion to control the lower classes, and the lower classes needed religion as a comfort in the face of social inequality.
Indigenous religion
refers to religious traditions originating in a particular place and, typically, bound to that location. Thus, the major world religions are not considered indigenous religions because they have spread far beyond their places of origin.
religion is a Western term and concept.
Most indigenous religions do not have a term for religion and would refer to what outsiders see as religion as their traditional way of life.
Scholars have opted to use a variety of terms in place of religion when it comes to the study of indigenous cultures.
These terms include religious tradition, spirituality, and lifeway. This lesson will use the word religion because, while indigenous cultures may not have a word for religion, they do have patterns of belief and behavior related to sacred reality that are central to their cultures.
All religions seek to answer basic questions about life:
Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here?
In the context of indigenous religions, perhaps the two most important such questions are
How are humans related to the world around them?
How are humans related to one another?
The practitioners of indigenous religions seek to answer these questions in a variety of ways.
One method is by recognizing that the entire world, including the living and the dead, nature, place/space and even time is sacred.
In many indigenous religions, all aspects of life are seen as part of the same sacred reality
Because there is no clear boundary between the natural and the supernatural or between human and nonhuman, all of reality is sacred. - the natural world as a whole is considered to be sacred and is treated accordingly.
Harmony and balance are considered an important human responsibility in indigenous religion; In many traditions, the forces of the world are seen as being naturally in balance; it is human actions that cause imbalance.
When a human causes imbalance, the spiritual response might take the form of illness, drought, war, or another result that negatively affects the community and its environment.
Time is typically thought of as cyclical in indigenous religions.
time not only follows natural patterns such as the seasons and phases of the moon but that time circles back on itself and the past exists in the present moment. When rituals and stories are used to recall the mythic past in the present, they allow contemporary people to relive the deeds of deities and ancestors, thus allowing them to enter into sacred time.
Often, the land itself is sacred by virtue of the fact that a religious tradition originated there
Indigenous religions develop in a particular geographic location and may have no efficacy outside of that location. Worldviews are linked to the land, and if the land is destroyed or the community is forced to leave, the myths and rituals of the tradition lose their meaning
If all life is spiritual according to indigenous religions, then there is always the potential for spiritual beings to be present. As a result, the community must maintain good relations with spiritual beings to preserve balance and harmony in life. If the spirits are injured or insulted, even by accident, they will retaliate and cause harm to humans.
Thus, humans must have some understanding of the spirit world to obtain beneficial outcomes and avoid harmful outcomes.
There are typically three levels of spiritual beings
1. high god
2. spirits & deities
3. ancestor spirits
high god
often but not always the creator of the world. This type of supernatural being is not present in all indigenous worldviews, and when it is, in many instances this god is not anthropomorphized as a "he" or a "she." Thus the high "god" may actually be considered a spiritual force rather than a being. In many cases, the high god is distant from humanity and may not be directly worshipped; there are other cases, however, in which the high god is considered a personal god who can be called on for aid.
spirits and deities
who work on a smaller, more immediate scale. These beings are often the focus of worship and art because they are more available to the community than is the high god, if such a being is thought to exist. At this level, the spirits or deities may take a variety of forms, and they may or may not have personalities or preferences.
ancestor spirits
In some cases, no distinction is made between ancestors and deities, but in other cases, the ancestors are a clearly separate spiritual force. Ancestors may be feared or venerated or both; either way, they can have great power and thus must be treated well.
rites of passage
or lifecycle rituals
this type of ritual involves a person's transition from one life role to another. These rituals are most often related to birth, puberty, marriage, and death.
Rites of passage are important not only to the individual whose stage of life is changing but also to the entire community. When a person is born, becomes an adult, or dies, the shape of the community changes as a member is gained or lost. This is why, for example, many puberty rites of passage require a test of courage or skill; the entire community must witness that the new adult will be able to contribute appropriately and fully. Participation in another person's rite of passage acts to renew community bonds and holds a community or society together.
Birth rituals
mark the transition of a person from the spiritual world into the human world.
In some traditions, there is a waiting period following the birth that ensures that the baby is healthy enough to survive. Special attention may be paid to naming the child. The Yoruba of West Africa call a diviner to tell a baby's nature and future; afterward, the diviner will choose an appropriate name based on what was found out.
Puberty rituals
mark the passage of a child into adulthood. Many puberty rites require the boy or girl to demonstrate strength, endurance, and various skills to prove that he or she will be a valuable contributing member of the community. One example of a puberty ritual is the kinaalda ceremony of the Navajo of the American Southwest, which takes place over several days and guides a girl into womanhood.
Death rituals
mark the transition of a person from the human world back into the spiritual world. In some cases it is believed that the spirit of the deceased cannot enter the afterlife unless a particular ritual is performed. The LoDagaa of Ghana, for example, select the branch of a tree and carve it to represent the person who has died. Someone, ideally a son of the deceased, cares for the carving as they would the actual person; while this is happening, the spirit of the late parent can travel to the world of the dead.
marriage
Marriage is not universally a religious or spiritual event. In many cases, it is a social contract that is often the next step following puberty. However, in some cultures, religious rituals may accompany marriage. This is the case in many Christian sects, which teach that marriage is a state of being instituted and ordained by God.
Taboo
is a widely misunderstood practice
There are two ways to view it: an outsider's view and an insider's view. From the outside, taboos are seen as rules that forbid certain behaviors, especially as they relate to objects, people, places, and times. These rules enable people to avoid doing things that offend spirits and ancestors. This view may lead to misunderstandings about the significance of the taboo.
Common taboos relate to birth, sex, menstruation, and death.
Sacrifice
In cases when a taboo has been broken or when a spirit must be appeased, sacrifices are often used to reverse the ill effects or at least mitigate further misfortune.
In indigenous religions, a religious functionary/Shaman
is typically a person who can enter or communicate with the spiritual world on behalf of his or her community.
aka priest(ess), medicine man or woman, or medium, a widely used and accepted term for these religious functionaries is shaman.
Shaman
comes from the word saman in the language of Siberian indigenous peoples. Saman means "someone who knows." Indeed, shamans are the repositories for an array of knowledge, which may include how to heal injuries, instruct others on taking the proper course of action, or cause beneficial outcomes for individuals and the community.
Shamans usually have had spontaneous, powerful spiritual experiences
In many cases, the experience occurred when the person was undergoing major turmoil, such as that caused by the death of a loved one, a serious accident or illness, or a mental breakdown. Once it is clear that a person has the potential to become a shaman, he or she learns from another more experienced shaman, who passes down lore and techniques that the new shaman will need. Much of this information must be memorized, as it is only handed down orally.
The methods used by shamans vary from one religious tradition to the next
Some techniques include fasting, monotone drumming, chanting, dancing, and using narcotic substances. All of these methods help a shaman reach another plane of consciousness to contact the spirit world. Through that contact, a shaman may be able to heal; solicit spiritual beings for information, blessings, or other beneficial outcomes; guide the souls of the dead to the spirit world; facilitate hunting; acquire divine knowledge of the future or other unknown topics; and in general maintain or restore balance and harmony with the spirit world.
Modern life has both challenged and threatened indigenous religions
In the last five centuries, colonial powers have spread throughout the world, particularly from Europe. As European influence spread, it sometimes had disastrous results for indigenous peoples. In many cases, unfortunately, this included attempts to destroy native cultures entirely. Land dispossession, language extinction, and the separation of children from their families were involved in these attempts, and in some cases, they were successful. In other cases, indigenous cultures adapted to their situations and found new ways to practice their traditional beliefs.
Throughout the world, indigenous religions have been influenced by major world religions,
especially Christianity and Islam